One of the very best ways to introduce really good ambient light into a kitchen is by fitting down lights into the ceiling. So what’s involved?
Well in principle you just need to drill a number of holes of the correct size to accommodate your new down light fittings and connect it all up. In practice this can get quite tricky because very often there is no easy (or indeed any) access to the void above the ceiling.
But it can be done simply with a bit of ingenuity and patience from below the ceiling – for a start, drilling all those holes means you do at least have limited access to quite a wide area and there is usually enough room to feel about and pass cables around using lengths of bent wire and such like.
Which neatly leads to the first issue: how many down lights exactly do you need? Naturally that’s largely a subjective matter, but for most purposes (and if you don’t have strong opinions to the contrary) then a spacing of 1 to 1.5 meters apart is about right. This fits with the beam angle on most spot lights used for down lighting and ensures a reasonably even spread of light without creating obvious light pools on the floor.
Having said that though, you also want to ensure that lights closest to the walls are no more than 600 millimeters distance from the wall. Why so? Because that’s the standard depth for kitchen units and you want to ensure that lights above work surfaces (which are invariably sitting atop said units and pushed up against the walls) illuminate the surface in front of you as you stand there. If they were any deeper into the center of the room then you would always cast your own shadow over task areas.
The other thing to check for is the location of joists – there is nothing more annoying than finding out that your chosen spot is obstructed by a lump of 4 x 2. This is most easily done with a hand held detector that beeps when it is over dense material, though you can also drill small test holes to locate obstructions. It’s a good idea anyway to map out where beams run so as to plan the wiring layout.
Once you have marked out where the lights are to go then you need to cut the holes. The light fittings will clearly state the required diameter so the easiest option is to use one of those adjustable hole cutter attachments for a drill. If you don’t have such a thing then most DIY stores stock them and they’re not expensive. Your alternative is to drill a couple of guide holes and use a small jig saw. Either way, be prepared for the fact that the plaster dust makes a terrible mess.
Assuming you had some pre-existing lighting (a central ceiling rose for example) then you now need to gain access to that and set about modifying things to now distribute the power to the various individual fittings. There are various options, but essentially you want to route the original circuit to each of the new lights . How exactly you do this depends on how many lights you’re dealing with, but one solution is to replace the original light fitting with a junction box (now in the ceiling void) such that the neutral and switched live wires can be extended to feed each light in turn, controlled by the original switch.
At this stage you might want to seriously consider employing an electrician, especially if you don’t know how to distribute power to multiple outlets in parallel. Also, if you were not able to cannibalize an existing power outlet then you’re into running new cables to new switches and delegating to a professional is the smart choice here. Aside from safety (and these days, legal) aspects, electricians have specialist tools for doing things like cutting cable channels in walls and will wire everything up much faster and neater than you could.
With the holes and cable runs in place, it’s time to decide on the lamps themselves. The fittings themselves are usually agnostic on this score and you typically have a choice between different types of light bulb, namely mains versus low voltage (often characterized, incorrectly, as GU10 and MR16) and incandescent (typically halogen) versus LED spotlights.
If you’re determined to go down the conventional incandescent lamp route then you may now proceed to the debate about low voltage compared to line voltage. If however you don’t have numerous screws loose and are instead intent on saving yourself a great deal of money by opting for LED then you don’t need to concern yourself with the interesting but irrelevant fact that 12 volt lights use thicker filaments (the step down in voltage is matched by an increase in current) which makes them brighter.
The thing is that all LED light bulbs are inherently low voltage; it’s just that the “mains” powered ones are designed with an integral LED driver (transformer), thereby saving you the trouble of figuring out the correct type of transformer for LED light bulbs. Not that you cannot opt for separate 12v transformer(s) and low voltage LED lights if you want to (for some situations, boats and caravans being obvious examples, you only have access to 12 volts anyway). It’s just an extra complication which is easily avoided in most cases.
As regards the many reasons for choosing LED over incandescent lighting, I don’t have the inclination to reiterate them here, but if you’re interested you can start by checking out these LED savings calculators – and also bear in mind that whatever your personal views on the subject, incandescent light bulbs are officially doomed, doomed I tell you.
A couple of caveats I would mention about installing LED spot lights include making sure you get ones that are up to the job (6 watts seems to be the benchmark these days). Also, in recessed ceiling fittings some of them are slightly bigger than usual and can consequently either stick out or be a bit of a tight fit. But you can generally get around this by disposing of the fire safety enclosures, since unlike super hot halogen lamps, LEDs do not pose any kind of fire risk.
Another is that if you want to put LED down lights on a dimmer switch (and you probably do, since all the best home lighting designs depend on variability) then you need to ensure that you explicitly source dimmable LED spotlights (most are not) and get yourself a suitable low-load LED dimmer switch.
Finally, if you’ve never seen LED kitchen lights before then be prepared for the fact that they initially appear somehow “whiter” than what you may be used to and give a very sharp, crisp light. Personally (and many others seem to agree) I prefer this slightly brighter, more sparkly effect especially in kitchens and bathrooms which have many reflective surfaces. Certainly once you get used to it you will not want to go back to the yellow/pink tinge of halogen lamps.
